


Duets

by raleigh_bird



Series: The Lion and the Serpent [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Bullying, Coming Out, Everyone Needs A Hug, Ex-Death Eater Draco Malfoy, First Kiss, Fluff and Angst, Friendship/Love, Harry Potter Epilogue What Epilogue | EWE, Healing, Hogwarts Eighth Year, Multi, Mutual Pining, Original Character(s), Pureblood Culture (Harry Potter), Queer Themes, Redemption, References to Depression, Snogging
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-19
Updated: 2021-01-11
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:15:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,122
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27636680
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raleigh_bird/pseuds/raleigh_bird
Summary: Title change! Formerly "Green Was the Silence". Softcore post-war Eighth Year at Hogwarts relationship pairings set within the story line of The Lion and the Serpent. No DM/HG in this story.Planning on 2-3 chapters for each of the following five pairs: AG/DM, HP/GW, SF/DT, MB/LL, and NL/HA
Relationships: Astoria Greengrass/Draco Malfoy, Hannah Abbott/Neville Longbottom, Harry Potter/Ginny Weasley, Millicent Bulstrode/Luna Lovegood, Seamus Finnigan/Dean Thomas
Series: The Lion and the Serpent [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2075682
Kudos: 12





	1. She Keeps Me Warm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _While staring at this strange girl, somewhere Millicent could swear that she could hear a sound like the tumblers of a lock slowly rotating into place. Some warm heat coiled in her the way that it did when Daphne sometimes stretched in the morning and her t-shirt revealed a small bit of her bare skin. It was the same feeling when she thought Draco Malfoy was almost cute when he needed a haircut because he looked ‘pretty’. Pretty. Like a girl. Fuck._
>
>>   
> And I can't change, even if I tried / Even if I wanted to / My love, my love, my love, my love / She keeps me warm - Mary Lambert 

Every year at the Sorting Ceremony, Millicent Bulstrode asked herself how she ended up in Slytherin. The only Slytherin trait Millicent could admit to was a well-developed sense of self-preservation. She knew how to make herself small and to make herself scarce. Her father taught her as much long before she arrived at Hogwarts. Once in school, she knew when she was supposed to let girls like Pansy Parkinson and Daphne Greengrass talk, biting back the desire to be included. Additionally, when necessary, she had also learned to be mean first before others could be mean. After all, it was her experience that girls that looked like her were rarely treated with kindness.

As Lord Bulstrode's only child, beget from a wartime dalliance with a Muggle woman, Millicent was constantly reminded how lucky she was to have been sorted into the Slytherin house. The reclusive patriarch of an ancient Pureblood family (one of the so-called Sacred Twenty-Eight) had never given his daughter any further hint to her mother's identity or eventual fate. She had been instructed from an early age that her 'muddied' history was a shame not to be spoken of, so it was easy to let others just assume that she was a Pureblood. Most Pureblood children, regarded as useful assets for securing power through advantageous alliances from birth, became well-acquainted with each other years before arriving at Hogwarts. However, for whatever reason, Millicent had had a fairly solitary childhood that led to her being often treated as an outsider despite her family name.

After the end of war, Headmistress McGonagall had decided to place the 16 students whom had chosen to return in a separate Eighth Year dormitory. Though they had shared a room every school year since they were 11, Tracey Davis and Daphne Greengrass were never particularly close with Millicent. During Fifth Year, she had made the effort to fit in by joining the Inquisitorial Squad, but even that had not seemed to earn her much in the way of social capital with her fellow housemates, leaving the girl most often in the company of her feline familiar Hades. As they were settling into their new room away from the Slytherin dungeons, she could feel her roommates eyeing her when she removed her new school robes after the Start of Term feast.

By the age of 18, the childish roundness of her face had melted away to reveal a well-defined jaw which curved down into a graceful neck. Though not quite delicate enough to be called pretty, her features had a handsome quality with dark, arching brows, a strong nose, and bowed lips. She was still heavy-boned, but the addition of a few inches of height over the last year had redistributed her weight into a more pleasing hourglass figure. In an uncharacteristic display of magnanimity, her father had even sent her to have an updated wardrobe tailored to better suit to her new proportions.

“New robes this year, Milly?” Daphne asked tentatively.

“Yeah, they were all too short all of a sudden,” she replied, sorting the clothes from her trunk into her wardrobe. Her new clothes, mostly fashionable dresses and sweaters in jewel tones that complimented her skin's winter coloring, hung along side her uniforms.

“You look… good,” Tracey said a bit awkwardly.

Millicent waited for a “but” or a punch line, and was genuinely surprised when neither came.

Hades hopped off her bed, stretching his sleek black body before he began winding loops around her ankles. Millicent crossed over to the door and opened it just a little to let the creature slip past. “Stay out of trouble!” she hissed after him. Millicent wasn’t sure what the cat did after curfew, but no one ever complained or told her that she couldn’t let him roam the castle. He was always back by dawn, curled on top of her trunk where she kept his bed.

This was the first year that her room was above ground since the Slytherin dormitories were in the basement of the castle. The room was larger than the one that they had shared previously, and she was excited to have a window near her bed. And while she wasn’t very close to Daphne or Tracey, at least she knew them as fellow Slytherins. She found herself wondering whom Draco Malfoy ended up having to room with since he was the only Slytherin boy to come back for Eighth Year. He had never been particularly nice to her, but earlier at dinner she had a sensed that the Draco Malfoy who had sat down next to her was not the same one who had grown up with. He looked a bit healthier than she recalled him looking during the last couple of years, but he also somewhat withdrawn without his usual posse of friends.

When Slytherin girls gushed excitedly about cute boys and school crushes, Malfoy was often a figure of interest along with a few other Slytherins like Blaise Zambini and Adrian Pucey. As Millicent climbed into bed, she thought about how none of those boys had ever really appealed to her, at least not in the ways that Daphne or Tracey would describe in breathy giggles. It didn’t help that even the boys of her own house had been calling her names for years, usually in reference to her being fat or ugly. The girls in her room had laid off openly insulting her in order to keep the peace, but she suspected that when she wasn't around that they probably laughed at her with their friend Pansy Parkinson. Slytherins were not particularly known for their loyalty or their courage to stand up for others.

Millicent woke up the next morning to the sounds of Daphne swearing under her breath looking for something in her trunk none too quietly. Sitting up in bed, she stretched and looked out the large window, still amazed that she could see the bright sun after years in the subterranean Slytherin dormitories. The train had come a few days earlier than usually this year in order to allow some extra time for settling in which meant that they would have the weekend before classes began on Monday.

“Why is it so damn bright in here,” Tracey groaned with her forearm thrown over her eyes.

Millicent chuckled as she reached down to pet Hades only to find his bed empty. She cocked her head to one side with a frown before asking, “Daphne, have you seen Hades since you’ve been awake?”

“Sorry, no. I’m sure he’s around somewhere though,” the tall blonde said, not looking up.

“Hmmm, well I’m going to get dressed and head down to breakfast then. I’ll look for him after, I guess,” Millicent said, hearing an uneasiness edging into her voice.

* * *

Dread had truly taken hold when Hades had still not turned up by dinner time. With no classes to distract her, she was free to imagine the worst. When she was younger, she used to daydream about Hades and Mrs. Norris meeting up for romantic trysts and moonlit hunts, but right now she worried that Hades might have run afoul of Argus Filch or his ancient cat. Millicent wandered the courtyards and around the greenhouses while the sun had still been out, frequently returning to the dormitory to check if her familiar had come back on his own. At the evening meal, she found herself without appetite, anxiety sitting heavy in her belly as she poked at a few vegetables with her fork.

“Hey lads, check it out! M-elephant’s on a diet!” she heard a boy’s jeer from farther up the table. By the time her head shot up the small group of Seventh Years were all laughing too much for her to determine the individual culprit.

“Sod off!” she spat, louder than she would have liked, her face flushed with anger as several of the boys feigned terror through peals of unkind laughter.

“Apologize.”

Millicent rounded on the speaker. It was Draco Malfoy sitting between the Greengrass sisters across from the boys in question.

“Apologize,” he repeated, his voice low and lethal.

“Hey, uh sorry, Mil, just joking around, yeah honest, just being a prat, meant no harm,” came a mumbled murmur from two or three red-faced boys. Draco hadn't looked at her, but continued with his dinner, while the boys eyed him nervously while whispering to each other. The two sisters next to Malfoy shot her pitying looks.

Millicent had opened her mouth to say something, but her reply died on her lips. Once she was able to snap her mouth closed, she spun away from the table to hurry towards the heavy oak doors without a word. She didn’t need anyone feeling sorry for her, especially not girls like Daphne and Astoria whose prettiness her father had felt compelled to bring to Millicent's attention. Frequently.

She broke into a run once she reached the hallway with no clear destination in mind other than _out_ and _away_. She climbed the stairs, the muscles in her legs burning from the sudden exertion. Millicent made her way along a fifth floor corridor before she finally had to stop, leaning her back heavily against the stone wall to regain her breath. A nearby voice startled her nearly out of her skin, the speaker concealed by their position on a stone bench beneath a large recessed window.

“It seems that I lost track of the time conversing with this wanderer. He wouldn’t perhaps be a friend of yours?”

“Hades!” Millicent cried, still vaguely out of breath. The black cat sat regally in front of Luna Lovegood. The girl's crossed legs were tucked under a crushed velvet skirt, with one pale bare knee peeking from its navy blue layers. The moonlight from the cloudless sky fell over the Ravenclaw's platinum blonde locks giving it the appearance of moving water. Millicent could not seem to stop herself from gawking at the elfin girl regarding her with luminous silver eyes although she could feel the silence growing awkward.

“I’m afraid that I don’t have my spectrespecs on me, but I suspect that you have quite a few Wrackspurts around you just now. They can make you a bit sixes and sevens, you know, flying through your ears,” Luna said dreamily.

“Oh Circe, I thought he had run away or got into trouble,” Millicent said as she pulled the cat into her arms, ignoring the girl's strange comment.

“No, I don’t believe so. But he could have been lured away by Nargles. They hide my things all the time. Would you care to sit?”

“Ah, sure, Loony, I mean, Luna. I’m sorry,” she corrected quickly as she sat down, Hades curling up into her lap with a throaty purr.

“Quite all right. The moon stays the same even when it appears to change shape,” she said, nodding her head towards the waxing moon that could be seen over the lake.

“Is that supposed to mean that people don’t change?” Millicent asked, her fingers grazing over the cat's ebony fur.

“No, it just means you have to be close enough to see them as they are,” Luna returned in a knowing way.

While staring at this strange girl, somewhere Millicent could swear that she could hear a sound like the tumblers of a lock slowly rotating into place. Some warm heat coiled in her the way that it did when Daphne sometimes stretched in the morning and her t-shirt revealed a small bit of her bare skin. It was the same feeling when she thought Draco Malfoy was almost cute when he needed a haircut because he looked ‘pretty’. _Pretty. Like a girl. Fuck._

"Uh, thank you for finding Hades. I was so worried about him," Millicent forced out eventually.

"Creatures just seem to like me. I have never had a familiar of my own, but imagine it would be nice to have someone to cuddle at night," Luna said, reaching forward to graze her delicate fingers under the cat's chin and causing him to purr loudly.

 _Bloody, hell, did she seriously just say that_ , Millicent mentally groaned as she tried to swipe her sweaty palms over her robes without drawing too much attention to the movement. What she really wanted to do was get out of that hallway and back to the safety of her room where she might be able to think and breathe again. Instead she watched in horror as her fingers, seemingly of their own volition, drifted to touch Luna's. She expected that the younger girl would have pulled her hand away. Instead, as if the gesture was completely natural and unconscious, Luna gently took Millicent's hand and held it in hers, grazing the same circles over her skin that had just been making Hades purr with contentment.

Luna's fingers explored the soft skin of Millicent's hand and wrist, drawing the backs of her knuckles over the sensitive pads of her fingertips and palpating lightly across her madly beating radial pulse. Hades had curled up next to them, only showing mild irritation for having been displaced from her lap. There was some distant voice telling Millicent that she should be scanning the hallways, but she couldn't take her eyes away from their intertwined hands.

"Um, L-luna, what are d-doing?" Millicent whispered.

"Shall I stop?" Luna asked, her silver eyes meeting Millicent's, "Or would you want more?"

"More," she breathed, not sure if she meant that she wanted more or if she wanted to know what more entailed.

Luna leaned forward slightly to bring her pink lips to the palm that her fingers had just explored. Millicent watched in amazement as gentle kisses ghosted over the inside of her wrist. The warmth of Luna's breath teased her sensitive skin until gooseflesh traveled up her arm. Luna pressed her soft cheek into Millicent's hand, closing her eyes with contentment that seemed almost feline. Millicent ventured her hand slowly towards the nape of Luna's neck. As she carded her fingers through Luna's fine flaxen tresses, they both sighed heavily.

Luna had shifted to rest her head on Millicent's knee, the small blonde girl essentially curled against the Slytherin girl's lap while both allowed their fingers to gently touch whatever skin they could reach. Millicent tucked Luna's hair behind her ear, gently fingering the girl's strange radish-shaped earring before tentatively exploring her upper back and spine. Luna nuzzled her cheek against Millicent's thigh, letting her fingers trace unknowable patterns over the her knee. For awhile, they remained in that position, eyes closed in enjoyment of the physical contact.

"Dinner's nearly over. There will be Ravenclaws in this hall soon," Luna said quietly which caused the hand that had been rubbing circles on Luna's back to flex nervously into a fist.

"I guess I need to go then," she replied reluctantly. _I don't want to go_ , she wanted to scream.

Luna rose slowly and stretched to bring movement back to her lithe limbs. Millicent remained sitting as Luna stood between the taller girls legs, close enough that Millicent could see flecks of blue in the girl's strange silver eyes. Luna was so petite that her chin was only a bit above Millicent's upturned face. The older girl cautiously brought both her hands to Luna's hips, unsure of what to do.

"May I kiss you goodnight?" Luna leaned in to whisper in Millicent's ear. Luna could feel an encouraging squeeze on her hips as Millicent nodded.

Pink lips grazed past Millicent's cheek with whimper-inducing slowness. Their eyes met once more. A last silent question followed by a silent answer. The heavenly request of Luna's tongue on the seam of her lips caused them to part instantly. Millicent had never been kissed before, but she easily followed the sensations coursing through her and the gentle pressure of Luna's fingers on her face. Millicent had heard other Slytherin girls talk about snogging, but the reality was so much better than she had imagined. It made her hands itch with a want, the same feeling which also seemed to be pulsing in her knickers.

Finally Luna brought her lips to Millicent's temple and she felt her way down her arms until they were holding hands again.

"I liked...that a lot," Millicent panted.

"I can tell," Luna said with some cheek before she added with a shy smile, "I liked it, too."

They both heard voices coming from down the hall signaling the end to their private moment. Luna snuck in one more quick peck before she twirled away toward the Ravenclaw common room, leaving Millicent to touch her fingers to her lips in wonder. Hades followed along as Millicent walked on back to her dormitory, completely unaware that his mistress planned on rewarding him handsomely for his matchmaking services.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I like the idea of a redeemed Millicent, but obviously I took some back story liberties. There's not a lot of evidence that she did much on the dark side other than her time on the Inquisitorial Squad. I was sort of picturing her as a darker-haired Mary Lambert even before I chose "She Keeps Me Warm" for this chapter.
> 
> https://youtu.be/NhqH-r7Xj0E
> 
> I also would definitely be into soft butch pretty Draco as a queer aesthetic.


	2. The Only Thing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _“How very non-Slytherin of you,” he drawled in a peeved tone. Draco was annoyed at her presence. Not only for interrupting his post-class hunger strike sulking, but more specifically because of the uncomfortable incident two days ago when Astoria had found him having a "turn" in the corridor outside of the Room of Hidden Things._
>
>>   
> Do I care if I survive this? Bury the dead where they're found.  
> In a veil of great surprises, hold my hand 'til I drown.  
> Should I tear my eyes out now, before I see too much?  
> Should I tear my arms out now? I wanna feel your touch.  
> \- Sufjan Stevens  
> 

On Monday morning, the first class of Defense Against the Dark Arts had gone about as well as Draco Malfoy had expected. Reactions to his presence ranged from silent glares to openly-voiced complaints. Being the only former Death Eater in the room wasn't a particularly enviable position. It didn't help that their new professor did not seem to understand the cause of the stifling tension in the room of Sixth, Seventh, and Eight Year students and the contested presence of the one quiet young man sitting towards the back looking as if he would rather be anywhere but where he was. 

Professor Dynamene Merrythought had been abroad in America during the war, seeking to make a name for herself far away from the storied legacy of her late grandmother Galatea Merrythought whom had held the DADA professor post for many decades under both Headmasters Black and Dippet. Already nervous about meeting the expectations of her new colleagues and without an excess of teaching experience, the new professor was hardly prepared for having to defuse the hostile atmosphere of a room filled with war-weary teenagers on her first day. From what she heard, many of them probably had just as much practical experience with the subject as she did. _Frankly, too much practical experience, bless their hearts_ , she thought with a nervous swallow.

“Professor, he has no bloody right to be here,” someone seethed.

“Come on, Malfoy was on our side in the end,” Neville Longbottom piped up bravely, the only student to speak in the boy's defense.

“What was McGonagall thinking letting a Death Eater back in the school?” someone else grumbled. 

Draco thought the cold stares were even worse than the vocal complaints. Luna Lovegood had spent months locked in his family dungeon less than a year ago. He could hardly fault her for not wanting to share space with him. And while she made no comment, he observed that the girl's usual dreamy expression had been replaced by a concerned wariness. Ginny Weasley had placed a comforting hand on her friend’s shoulder, but Draco could see the tension in the red-headed witch's brow as her wand was held at the ready. 

Professor Merrythought scanned the room with a sigh before she began in a calm and patient tone, “I understand that many of you have had more practical experience with defensive spells than witches and wizards of your age should ever be expected to have. Just because the war is over, it is understandable that strong feelings of conflict and hurt may remain. I intend to train you to be proficient in dealing with curses, hexes, and jinxes that you may face not only on your N.E.W.T.s at the end of term but also those that you may encounter in the future. You all have had significant curriculum instability over the course of your education, so we truly have too much work to do this year to dwell...unnecessarily on the past.” 

The professor glanced pointedly at a scoff from Seamus Finnigan, but overall the class seemed to be mollified by this speech enough to settle down. The rest of the lecture was spent distributing a list of N.E.W.T.-level competencies and a schedule for the rest of the term. Draco kept his head down as he scanned the parchment, trying to avoid painful memories as he read over various dark curses that he had seen, experienced, or cast himself. He felt the nudge of an elbow to find Neville looking at him with some concern as he glanced towards Draco’s white-knuckled fingers around his wand. He rolled his wrist and shook the tension away giving the other young man what he hoped was a reassuring nod. 

At the end of the class, Draco couldn’t get out of the classroom fast enough. Instead of making his way to the Great Hall for lunch, he shouldered his bag and walked swiftly towards the Eighth Years' dormitory. He had had quite enough staring during class and didn’t relish the idea that it would continue while he ate. He honestly wondered how the term would play out if a single class had sent him scurrying to hide. He could all too well imagine his father sitting in Azkaban with a sneer on his face in response to such cowardice. 

The tall blond slumped heavily into a wingback chair towards the back of the common room. Everyone would be at lunch for the next hour so he would at least be able to enjoy some solitude before Potions in the afternoon. Professor Slughorn had never been as invested in Draco as his late godfather Severus, but he knew that he could hold his own in the subject. Today would likely be another day of going over schedules and the expectations for N.E.W.T.s at the end of the term. He would just have to put up with Horace Slughorn’s vanity and long-winded blustering while he kept his head down. 

Draco muttered a quiet curse as he heard the door to the common room swing open. Since he was facing away from the entrance, he pulled his knees to his chest in the chair to hide his feet, hoping not to be bothered. 

“I can see your bag, Draco Malfoy,” came a teasing voice that was far too close to his chair, “Why are you hiding?”

Draco rubbed a hand over his face and said through slightly clenched teeth without turning around, “I'm not hiding. Astoria, you do realize that this is the _Eighth_ Year dormitory right?”

The petite Sixth Year circled around in front of him and perched lightly on the wide window sill across from him, a bright red apple in her hand. She was wearing just her uniform, her black school robes draped over her bag. He frown a bit as she set her bag down right next to his. The sun fell over the girl's signature Slytherin green headband that adorned the dark brown waves of her hair. In the light, her hazel eyes seemed to glitter with a pixelated array of greys, greens, and browns. The two pretty Greengrass sisters looked nothing alike. Where her older sister Daphne was a leggy blonde with honey-colored tresses and sun-kissed skin, Astoria's fairer complexion and darker hair were supposedly more like their mother's. 

Draco had been just four years old when Lady Greengrass passed away. While he couldn't remember the woman, he did remember that the sisters had been at his birthday party at Malfoy Manor when their distraught father arrived suddenly to scoop up five-year old Daphne and three-year old Astoria and whisk them home. He hadn't thought of this in years and wondered if Astoria was even old enough to remember it. When his mother was tucking him into bed that night, he recalled that he had asked why the two girls left before he opened his presents and she had told him that their mother was very sick. Draco had suggested that they should send some of his cake to their house which had made Lady Malfoy smile sadly before she kissed him goodnight. 

“Daph gave me the password, and I like that it’s sunny up here,” Astoria shrugged before taking a dainty bite of her apple.

“How very non-Slytherin of you,” he drawled in a peeved tone. Draco was annoyed at her presence. Not only for interrupting his post-class hunger strike sulking, but more specifically because of the uncomfortable incident two days ago when Astoria had found him having a "turn" in the corridor outside of the Room of Hidden Things. He still wasn't sure how he ended up there, blinding clawing at his tie, heart racing, gasping for breath. He had fallen, hitting his head against the wall just before she found him. Before he could stop himself, he unthinkingly brought his hand to his brow where she had pressed a handkerchief.

“Oh! That reminds me, I brought this for you,” she said putting down her apple and retrieving something from her bag, “Don't worry. Daphne has a sweet tooth, so Father sends us some every month.”

As he looked at this palm he saw a gold foil-wrapped bar of dark chocolate, not from Honeyduke's but from a high-end French shop that he recognized from trips to the wizarding district of Paris with his mother. The Greengrass family was not quite as wealthy as his own, but they were still an old family with refined tastes. He raised an eyebrow in question which made her blush prettily as she breezed, “You know, if you are feeling light-headed again like the other night.” She gave him a shy look as if prepared for an unkind or defensive response. Almost as if she expected him to say something mean.

“Um, this was thoughtful, Astoria. Thank you,” he replied at last, his heart feeling lighter as her face lit up at his reply.

“There’s still thirty minutes of lunch. Are you sure you want to hide up here?” she asked as she stood, reaching forward to tug him by his wrist. 

The physical contact surprised him greatly, just as it had when she had taken his arm the other night and walked with him to the Great Hall. The fact that this was the second time in as many days that he had found himself alone with her had him seeing Astoria in an entirely new light despite the fact that they had known each other for most of their lives. The last few years had been so blurred by war and so marked by his own trauma and angst and fear, that he could hardly remember where she had been during that whole time. His last distinct concept of "Daphne's little sister" was of a governess-terrorizing, knobby-kneed child, not the smiling 17 year old in front of him.

Draco pulled his hand back, but instead of releasing his wrist, Astoria let herself be moved forward until her knees met his. Her eyes never left his, even as his other hand set the chocolate aside on the side table before hesitantly reaching for her hip. He paused, barely breathing, waiting for her to push him away. Instead she guided his other hand to her hip and brought her small hands to his shoulders. She watched the rise and fall of his Adam's apple, the subtlest sign of his nervous energy, as he let his hands drift up to her waist. Screwing her own courage to the sticking place*, she brought her knees on either side of his slim hips, slowly sinking into his lap as his eyes fluttered shut with a quiet gasp.

"Draco," she whispered as he wrapped his arms around her back to pull her tightly against his chest, the sound of his name drawing a low moan from deep in his chest. Astoria could feel his pulse racing beneath her lips as she pressed them gently to his neck. Cupping his face in her hands, she rested her forehead against his. The need to kiss her was overwhelming. The only girl that Draco had seriously fooled around with over the years had been Pansy, and they hadn't been together since before he left school during Easter holiday last year. 

_Easter holiday. The Manor. The drawing room._

The words flashed like lighting. The memories followed like thunder.

 _Fear. Fire. Burning. Hermione..._

"Stop!" he hissed, his eyes squeezed tight. Draco opened his eyes to see Astoria looking hurt and confused.

"No. Fuck. Not you," Draco struggled, his eyes glassy with the threat of tears. He brought his hands to her face and sighed. "Astoria, I'm so sorry. I'm an arse. It's not you. Please, I'm just-"

His words were cut off by the common room door, voices out in the hall drifting in as a few students were coming back to the dormitory after lunch. Hidden in the chair, Draco and Astoria were tucked away out of sight, but the sound of other students and Draco's perplexing behavior had Astoria red-faced and rushing to escape his gray-eyed gaze. Pushing off his lap, she bent quickly to snatch up her bag without a glance back at him, her apple abandoned on the window sill. She darted towards the door, not stopping even as she ran past Daphne and Tracey whom exchanged shocked looks with each other. Daphne recovered first and walked purposefully towards the back of the room. 

"Draco Malfoy, what in Merlin's name have you-" she started, but stopped when she saw raw anguish on his face. They had been old family friends for as long as she could remember, but neither would claim to be close personal friends. His close friends, his chosen circle, had always been Blaise, Theo, and Pansy. Of course even from a distance, Daphne had noticed the changes in him over the years. She knew bits and pieces of the stories about his family's involvement with Voldemort during the war. From what had been reported in the _Daily Prophet_ , she learned that his father had been sent back to Azkaban after the Battle of Hogwarts and that his mother rarely left their Wiltshire estate.

"Draco," she said gently, "We have to get to Potions class now. Are you okay?" She placed a light hand on his shoulder and offered a reassuring smile. She cocked her head slightly as she noticed the French chocolate on the table next to him. She could not stop herself from laughing when he blushed. 

"Daphne, I just-" he started sheepishly.

"Tory has been mooning over you and your fancy hair since we were kids. I'm surprised it took you this long to notice," she chided matter-of-factly.

"What, seriously? Wait, she thinks my hair is fancy?" Draco said, running a hand through his platinum locks.

"Come on, Malfoy," Daphne rolled her eyes as they left the common room, "And bring the chocolate."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Because someone asked me what this meant. https://myshakespeare.com/macbeth/act-1-scene-7-popup-note-index-item-screw-your-courage-the-sticking-place
> 
> For those not reading "The Lion and the Serpent", Draco is trying to be good and heal, but is understandably fragile and angsty from trauma. Specifically, his trauma mostly relates to having watched Hermione being tortured by Bellatrix and then seeing both Hermione and Crabbe die in the Fiendfyre during the Battle of Hogwarts. 
> 
> Song for this chapter is The Only Thing by Sufjan Stevens. Have a listen here:  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhJtTIDJeCQ


End file.
